Turning vegan never negatively impacted my baking. I was quickly able to find suitable alternatives to be able to create all my favourite dishes, like using chia eggs or aquafaba to bind cakes instead of using egg.
However, adapting my bakes to gluten-free hasn’t been quite so easy… I’ve had buns that came out of the oven as hard as rocks, cakes with a sinking hole in the middle, and dough mixes that remain permanently raw-looking no matter how long you bake them.
So I carried on experimenting. And I’m going to let you into a little discovery of mine. The key to achieving delicious gluten-free cakes is in the flour. You NEED a good gluten-free flour. Not just that oat flour that you picked up from your local hippy health food shop.
A good quality gluten-free flour blend will make the fluffiest vegan Victoria sponge cake.
Equipment:
- Mixer optional
Ingredients:
Cake
- 300 ml Soya milk
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 150 g Vegan butter
- 3 tbsp Maple syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste
- 300 g Gluten-free self-raising flour
- 175 g Golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
Filling
- 75 g Vegan butter room temperature
- 200 g Icing sugar
- Water for icing, if needed
- Jam for the middle
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven)
- Grease two round cake tins and line with baking paper
- Stir the lemon juice in with the vegan milk and set aside to curdle slightly
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter together with the maple syrup and vanilla bean paste. Leave it to cool slightly
- Sieve the flour, sugar, and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl
- Gradually pour in and mix both the milk and the butter mixes. Stir until smooth. If it starts to clump, use a hand whisk to continue mixing
- Pour out the cake mix equally into the two cake tins
- Place the tins into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Try not to open the oven!
- Check the cakes with a skewer, if the mix sticks to the skewer and looks a bit too wet, put back in for 5 more minutes and check again
- Take out of the oven and leave to cool
- Whilst waiting for the cakes to cool, place your room temperature butter and icing sugar in a stand mixer and beat it together for about 3-5 minutes, until it is whipped and fluffy. If you don't have a stand mixer you can use your hand, but this may take a little longer to achieve similar results. If needed, add in some of the water to help mix
- Once the cakes have cooled, take them out of the tin and place one half on to a serving plate
- Spread over your jam of choice and then spread on the frosting
- Carefully place the second half on top
- If you have spare icing sugar, sprinkle on top using a sieve
- ENJOY your gluten-free + vegan masterpiece and don’t forget to show off!!
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